Recreational Assistant, Lifeguard
Leisure Connections
Total years of experience :18 years, 2 Months
The principal role was lifeguarding three separate pools at the leisure centre. The roles of necessary for the effective running of the centre varied daily and helped develop my abilities to be pragmatic and responsive to differing encounters. An example of the roles undertaken on a daily basis include assisting the Duty Manager to open or close the building dependant on the shift times, prepare the centre for the varied activities that occurred. On occasion I was expected to go on reception and do bookings of classes and inductions, as well as sell and process retail. The job is very much team orientated and aided substantially my ability to work effectively as a unit in getting the tasks done, the notion of teamwork permeated through to the simplest tasks all the way up to complex rescues and incident scenarios. The management structure was very hierarchical and working under this structure enabled me to appreciate differing roles of authority and the value that these have to effective running of a centre/organisation.
On top of day-to-day duties I also partake in regular staff training sessions, and have significantly increased my knowledge and skills base, one such example of this is through my acquisition of the St Johns Ambulance First Aid at Work Qualification, as well as training in manual handling.
In my time thus far as an employee I have directly been involved in one serious incident, in which our training methods, responsibilities and teamwork were effectively brought into use. Aside from the one serious incident I have directly been involved in numerous rescues and successfully assisted other members of the team in their rescues.